This invention relates to an air bag impact protection arrangement and to a process for folding an air bag.
Air bags are used as impact protection devices in vehicles. In an inoperative condition, an air bag is stored, together with an inflating device such as a gas generator, in a trough-shaped housing which is used, for example, with a driver air bag, a front passenger air bag or a side air bag.
It is known from German Patent Document DE 25 36 933 A1 to first fold an approximately circular air bag to a run and then fold the ends of the run to such an extent that a square is formed. By diagonally folding-in the corners, this square can then be further folded together in a square shape. In such a folding operation, the first formed basic square shape will always be maintained during further folding. In this arrangement, the housing has an approximately square construction, and the inflating device provided outside the air bag is connected to a housing inlet opening on the rearward surface of the air bag.
It is an object of the invention to provide an air bag impact protection arrangement and a process for folding an air bag by which the storage shape of the air bag is adapted to a trough-shaped housing.
According to the invention, this object and other objects are achieved by bringing an air bag into its folded-together position by combined turning and rolling foldings and by holding the air bag in position by a surrounding protective cover envelope.
The principal advantages achieved by the invention are that the air bag can be brought into an elongated narrow storage shape by combined turning and rolling foldings such that, in its storage form, the air bag is held in position by a protective covering envelope which surrounds it.
By a combination of turning and rolling folds, a particularly space-saving folded package is achieved so that the housing for storing the air bag also requires little installation space. The rolling folding creates a rolled package which, in the folded position, extends directly above the tube generator and is aligned parallel to it. In addition, a flat spreading-out is achieved during inflation of the air bag.
An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawings and in the following will be described in detail.